The Fifth Prevenient Mystery
Mary's Betrothal to Joseph
So this is the fifth and final mystery in my Prevenient Mysteries. Recalling the first four we have the Immaculate Conception, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Mary’s Life as a Temple Virgin. The final mystery in the set is Mary’s Betrothal to Joseph.
With this last mystery it makes the transition to the Joyful Mysteries and the Annunciation of our Lord when Mary conceives Jesus in her womb the next natural event in His life.
Little is known about the betrothal. In Matthew 1:18 we read, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.” In verses 1-17 Matthew goes through the genealogy of of Joseph in order to prove that Jesus was born in the line of David, important to those who were aware of the prophecy that the messiah would be born in David’s line.
A similar passage is found in Luke 1:26-27: “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David”.
Betrothal is equivalent to marriage in the Jewish culture, it was legally binding. There is no mention of an additional ceremony involving Mary and Joseph in scripture. But we do know that St. Joseph’s first reaction to learning that Mary was pregnant was to divorce her (Matthew 1:19). So in order for a divorce to be required they had to have been married.
After the betrothal, Mary would travel from Nazareth to Judah to help her cousin Elizabeth during the last 3 months of her pregnancy with St. John the Baptist. Joseph would have made the trip with her which, as Fr. Donald Calloway points out in his book, “Consecration to St. Joseph”, means that St. Joseph was not some old, decrepid man but must have been youthful enough to make this roundtrip twice (approximately 140 miles total, 70 miles each way), once to take her and again to bring her back to Nazareth. AND then making a similar trip when it came time for the trip to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus, not to mention the trip from Bethlehem to Egypt.
The Protoevangelium of James provides additional information about the betrothal beginning in paragraph 8:
“And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of the priests, saying: Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years in the temple of the Lord. What then shall we do with her, lest perchance she defile the sanctuary of the Lord? And they said to the high priest: You stand by the altar of the Lord; go in, and pray concerning her; and whatever the Lord shall manifest unto you, that also will we do. And the high priest went in, taking the robe with the twelve bells into the holy of holies; and he prayed concerning her. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by him, saying unto him: Zacharias, Zacharias, go out and assemble the widowers of the people, and let them bring each his rod; and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be. And the heralds went out through all the circuit of Judæa, and the trumpet of the Lord sounded, and all ran.
9. And Joseph, throwing away his axe, went out to meet them; and when they had assembled, they went away to the high priest, taking with them their rods. And he, taking the rods of all of them, entered into the temple, and prayed; and having ended his prayer, he took the rods and came out, and gave them to them: but there was no sign in them, and Joseph took his rod last; and, behold, a dove came out of the rod, and flew upon Joseph's head. And the priest said to Joseph, You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the virgin of the Lord. But Joseph refused, saying: I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young girl. I am afraid lest I become a laughing-stock to the sons of Israel. And the priest said to Joseph: Fear the Lord your God, and remember what the Lord did to Dathan, and Abiram, and Korah; (Numbers 16:31-33) how the earth opened, and they were swallowed up on account of their contradiction. And now fear, O Joseph, lest the same things happen in your house. And Joseph was afraid, and took her into his keeping. And Joseph said to Mary: Behold, I have received you from the temple of the Lord; and now I leave you in my house, and go away to build my buildings, and I shall come to you. The Lord will protect you.”1
It goes on to talk about the Annunciation, Visitation, etc. But for our purposes, the Betrothal of Mary and Joseph is the “mystery” I meditate on in this fifth and final prevenient mystery, usually on Saturdays which is dedicated to the Blessed Mother each week. It truly is a mystery in the spiritual sense in that we have some clues but not the full scope of the betrothal. What we do know is that that our Blessed Mother would remain a virgin for the entirety of her life and that St. Joseph, from the time of the betrothal until his death, would remain chaste.
I hope you have enjoyed this series on the Prevenient (or anticipatory) Mysteries. If time ever permits I hope to create a small booklet that will be available in my Not Saints Yet! store.